1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ink cartridges configured to dispense ink onto a recording medium when mounted in an ink jet printer, and systems which use such ink cartridges.
2. Description of Related Art
A known inkjet recording system includes an inkjet recording apparatus and a plurality of ink cartridges which are mounted side by side to a mounting portion of the inkjet recording apparatus. An ink supply opening is formed at one surface of the ink cartridge, and an ink supply needle is provided in the inkjet recording apparatus and is inserted through the ink supply opening when the ink cartridge is mounted to the inkjet recording apparatus, which causes ink within the ink cartridge to be supplied to inkjet recording apparatus. The ink cartridge includes a case and a bag disposed within the case. The bag has a port for supplying ink within the bag to the outside of the bag, and the port is aligned with the ink supply opening. A lid, a valve, and a spring are positioned within the port, such that the spring urges the valve to contact the lid. Specifically, when the valve contacts the lid, fluid communication between the inside of the bag and the outside of the ink cartridge is prevented, and when the ink supply needle applies a predetermined amount of force to the valve greater than and against the urging force of the spring, the valve separates from the lid, and the inside of the bag and the outside of the ink cartridge are in fluid communication with each other.
Ink may adhere to the ink supply needle after the ink supply needle is inserted into the ink cartridge through the ink supply opening. The ink which adheres to the ink supply needle adheres adjacent to the ink supply opening when the ink cartridge is removed from the mounting portion. The ink may drip from the ink supply opening or the needle, or both, onto the mounting portion. When the ink drips onto the mounting portion, the mounting portion becomes dirtied. After the mounting portion is dirtied, when a new ink cartridge is mounted to the mounting portion, the new ink cartridge also may become dirtied. When the new ink cartridge is removed from the mounting portion, a hand of user also may become dirtied with ink. Moreover, when the ink supply needle is removed from the ink supply opening, the spring pushes the valve back toward the ink supply opening. Therefore, ink is pushed by the valve toward the ink supply opening, and a relatively large amount of ink may be pushed out of the ink supply opening.
Another known ink cartridge includes an ink supply portion protruding from one surface of the ink cartridge. An ink supply opening is formed at the end of the ink supply portion. Ink also may drip from the ink supply opening of this type of ink cartridge onto a mounting portion of an inkjet recording apparatus.
Yet another known ink cartridge is configured to be mounted to a mounting portion of another known recording apparatus, and the mounting portion includes a door which is configured to be opened and closed. After this known ink cartridge is mounted to the mounting portion and the door is closed, the door is configured to latch on to the ink cartridge to remove the ink cartridge from the mounting portion when the door is opened by a user, which increases the ease with which the ink cartridge may be removed from the mounting portion. Nevertheless, the user relies on the recording apparatus to remove the ink cartridge from the recording apparatus.